Lisa Scottoline speaks Monday to Collier Friends of the Library

Editor’s note:New York Times best-selling author Lisa Scottoline headlines Monday’s next-to-last event in the 2019 Nick Linn Lecture Series, presented by the Friends of the Library of Collier County. The Edgar Award-winning writer of thrillers and humorous essays last appeared in the Collier Friends speaker series in 2007. Her publisher provided this Q&A.

Question: You’ve been to Southwest Florida many times. What makes it special for you? What are some of your favorite things to do and places to visit in the area?

Answer: I love Florida! I think the state is in my DNA because my mother lived in Miami and my brother lives in Homestead. I like everything about Florida — the climate, the people, and the relaxed atmosphere, and I really love that there are so many serious readers down there!

Florida communities support their libraries and bookstores in a big way, and I've loved visiting the Sarasota Library, Tampa Bay Library System and the Palm Beach County Library, among others. Plus Florida has some of the best independent bookstores around, as well as chains, and I love Books & Books, Vero Beach Book Center, Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, and the Barnes & Noble in Plantation and in Palm Beach Gardens, just to name a few.

And because the community is so literate and supportive of books, there are always plenty of great book festivals in Florida, namely the Southwest Florida Reading Festival in Fort Myers, Miami Book Fair, Sleuthfest and many others. Book culture is alive and thriving in Florida, and any author is lucky to go there!

Q: You’ll be appearing at the Friends of the Library of Collier County Nick Linn Lecture Series. What will you be talking about?

A: I love to meet readers and entertain them, so I'm really looking forward to this event. I have even been a part of the Nick Linn series before, and I couldn't be more thrilled to do it again! It's remarkably well-run, well-organized and well-attended. It's just a terrific time, and I know how much hard work that Nick and his amazing committee put into it, so I was thrilled to be asked to return.

As for my subject, I intend to tell plenty of funny stories that relate to my novels, all of which concern family relationships in one way or another. And, of course, my overarching goal is that I hope to help readers understand the connection of life to fiction and to give them insight, albeit in an entertaining way, about why books matter so much to all of us.

A: I am superexcited about my new book, “Someone Knows” (being released April 9). It's all about a teenage prank gone horribly wrong, and the effects of what happens even decades later. It's also an exploration of family, and how the ties that bind us can nurture us or even warp us.

I also love to write about justice, a word that has many definitions in my new novel, which also raises the question of how do you get justice and what is the function of punishment in society? Of course, those are themes that drive the book below the surface, and it's really an entertaining, propulsive story.

Q: What is next on the horizon for you?

A: I feel lucky in my life every day, and I'm going to keep writing and keep reading!

Nick Linn Lecture Series

What: Lisa Scottoline, author of “Someone Knows” and “After Anna,” speaks to the Friends of the Library of Collier County

When: Luncheon begins at noon; the author takes the stage at 1 p.m.

Where: Grand Lawn Pavillion of The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in North Naples